Barbell Shrugged

In this episode, Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash break down athlete monitoring, readiness testing, and how coaches can use simple data to make better training decisions. Travis explains how his master's thesis used daily depth jumps, subjective questionnaires, and warm-up performance to track fatigue and readiness in weightlifters. The big lesson: testing only works when you minimize variables, collect enough data to understand normal fluctuations, and know the athlete behind the numbers. The team discusses why reactive strength index, vertical jumps, drop jumps, and counter movement jumps can reveal useful trends in central nervous system readiness, but only when paired with honest communication and smart coaching judgment.
The conversation expands into how to adjust training when performance drops, why a 10% decrease may mean it is time to send an athlete home, and why volume is often the first lever to pull before reducing intensity. They also explore broader performance monitoring for everyday athletes, including deadlift strength, pull-ups, mile or mile-and-a-half run times, mobility screens, DEXA scans, VO2 max testing, bloodwork, blood pressure, wearables, and input tracking. Whether you are a coach, lifter, athlete, or performance-minded adult trying to stay strong and healthy over decades, this episode gives you a practical framework for measuring what matters, spotting problems early, and using data to guide better decisions without losing the human side of coaching.
Links:
Doug Larson on Instagram
Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

In this episode, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane break down cardio for strength athletes, especially lifters who have spent years chasing numbers in the gym but have not deliberately trained their heart, lungs, and work capacity. The big idea is simple: the less time you have, the more intensity matters; the more time you have, the more room you have for lower-intensity zone 2 work. Doug explains why strength athletes in their 40s, 50s, and beyond need to consciously program cardio instead of assuming it will happen naturally, while Travis shares how adding consistent conditioning helped him feel better, get leaner, and maintain a higher level of performance without giving up strength training.
The conversation gets practical fast. Dr. Mike Lane explains how different forms of cardio create different adaptations, from left ventricle size and stroke volume to capillary density, mitochondrial improvements, blood pressure, cholesterol, and overall longevity. The team covers why sled pushes, assault bike sprints, rowing, hill sprints, carries, and high-resistance cycling can be great options for strength athletes because they drive the heart rate up without beating up the joints. They also lay out simple programming options: one day per week of hard 10-second intervals, two days with an added zone 3 or tempo-style session, and three days with more steady zone 2 work layered in. Whether you are a powerlifter, weightlifter, former athlete, jiu-jitsu player, or just a strong person who does not want to gas out walking up a hill, this episode gives you a simple framework for adding cardio without losing what you built in the gym.
Links:
Doug Larson on Instagram
Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

In this episode, Dr. Ben Steel joins Doug Larson and Dr. Mike Lane to break down the psychology of self-sabotage, performance anxiety, and why high performers often get in their own way. Ben shares his background as a former wrestler, certified mental performance consultant, and mental health counselor, explaining how his own experience with pre-performance anxiety led him into sports psychology. The conversation centers on how athletes and driven people often use avoidance, perfectionism, all-or-nothing thinking, and "paralysis by analysis" as protective mechanisms, not because they are lazy or weak, but because they are trying to avoid shame, embarrassment, failure, or exposure.  
The team also explores how self-sabotage shows up differently in athletes, lifters, business owners, and high performers. For some people, it looks like blowing a diet, skipping competition, overtraining, or waiting until everything is perfect before taking action. For others, especially successful people, it can look like over-indexing on work or performance while avoiding uncomfortable emotional conversations, relationships, or deeper personal issues. Ben explains how tools like CBT, visualization, breathing, self-talk, arousal regulation, and pre-performance routines can help, but the deeper solution often starts with empathy, trust, outside perspective, and helping people feel understood rather than judged.
Big takeaway: self-sabotage is usually not a character flaw. It is a protection strategy. The goal is to identify what pain the person is avoiding, reduce the perceived threat, build confidence through small actions, and help them step into a challenge without needing everything to be perfect first.
Doug Larson on Instagram
Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

In this episode, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane explain why velocity-based training is a powerful tool for athletes who want to perform better without constantly feeling beat up. Instead of relying on grinders and fatigue-heavy sessions, they show how training with speed and intent can help athletes become more explosive, more efficient, and more prepared for sport. The big picture benefit is simple: you can build strength and power in a way that carries over to sprinting, jumping, changing direction, and competing by focusing on maximizing speed of contraction on every rep.
They also make the case that velocity-based training is not just for elite lifters or sports scientists. Used well, it can help athletes make progress with less unnecessary soreness, joint stress, and wasted volume. The practical value is huge: better power production, better recovery management, and a useful and enjoyable way to match training to the real demands of sport. For athletes, that means a better chance of getting faster, stronger, and more powerful over time.  Enjoy!
Links:
Doug Larson on Instagram
Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

Cody Taylor went from living out of a van on a music tour, signed to a major label and playing after Def Leppard, to setting unsupported fastest known times on 550-mile wilderness trails no one had ever completed without a support crew. He didn't start running until 2020. By 2023 he was finishing 100-milers. By 2024 he was carrying a 53-pound pack through 650 kilometers of Quebec backcountry alone, filtering water from mud puddles, taping the skin off his own back, and sleeping on the ground to eventually crossing the finish line. The question isn't how he survived. The question is how he built a body and a mind capable of that.
In this episode, Cody breaks down why strength training is a foundational component of his success in elite endurance performance and what it really takes to go unsupported when every pound in your pack matters and no one is coming to help you. He also covers the mental architecture of doing hard things: why 14 days of solitude in the wilderness will permanently change how you experience a glass of tap water. If you train hard, compete seriously, and want to understand what the human body is actually capable of, this episode is for you. 
Links:
Doug Larson on Instagram
Coach Travis Mash on Instagram